We've been talking spooky, but as the costumes are still very much out and about, we're already looking ahead to the holidays so the drone market is moving into being a more toy and gift-based discussion.
That's especially odd since the DJI Air 3S has now been launched and a good bit of the rumor attention has turned to the possibilities of a Mavic 4 – but that's something we'll look at in more detail on the DJI Rumors page.
A big headline, though, is the likelihood of cheaper goggles – compatible with the DJI Neo – so the total gift price of a FPV bundle for the new DJI Neo is lower.
Oh, and there is also the matter of the massive trade war!
Lets go! Here is the official promo I found on the #DJI #GogglesN3: The ready to use 1080p #ultrawidescreen O4 goggles gives you a 2.7 hour battery to fly FPV.Oh, one more thing: the estimated release date it now set to Oct 30th. 5 days people! Thank you for #following! Cheers pic.twitter.com/1rdYKqOPsgOctober 25, 2024
Yes, a few weeks ago I was enjoying talking about lovely things like the role of drones in the making of Ridley Scott's Naoloeon (which I learned about at DroneX), but later that week Adam Bray (Skydio CEO) fired a warning of pain for DJI owners in America.
That might prove to be just a small salvo in a trade war which has gone from cool, to pretty warm as shipments of DJI products to major retailers in the US have been blocked at customs. That didn't stop Reddit users getting the new Air 3S, but it has focussed attention on what has looked like it was just internal US politics until now.
Now it seems that the Chinese government might be starting to have an opinion. This can be discerned because the Global Times, a state-owned newspaper, published an editorial which noted that DJI is being targeted and said "What is being done to Chinese companies today is not novel; any outstanding company from any country could become a US government's similar target."
To be fair – writing from outside either China or the USA – it doesn't look like international free trade is being entirely respected from the American side, but it's probably fair to say that you can substitute the words "international community" with "Chinese Government" in the last paragraph of that piece: "The international community is watching closely, and when the rules and facts are clearly laid out, what choice will the US make between adhering to the rules and engaging in political trickery?"
Perhaps, though, as I report elsewhere, the US government might finally be realising just how much switching away from DJI & Chinese drones is costing it (and by extension taxpayers) thanks to an auditors report.
Those hoping for a DJI competitor should look instead at HOVERAir, where the IndieGoGo campaign has more than comfortably passed 6250 backers for the 8K model. Since the drones seem to offer real remote controllers and high res, DJI might actually have a high-end consumer rival.
• IndieGoGO HoverAir X1 Pro campaign page
Interestingly 'beyond line of sight' tech is also being normalised for drones as small as the Mavic 3, which I'll be posting about very soon, I promise.
What about the other big names in drones? As I mentioned Parrot drones have been returning to French roots this September, 3D-modelling the Palace of Versailles in the company's largest project of the kind yet.
What of DJI? Turn to the next page...
